Turnbull is scrapping the 457 work visa

PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull has announced he is scrapping the controversial 457 visa program for skilled migrants as part of a bid to tackle unemployment.
The Prime Minister says jobs must go to Australians first, before businesses consider hiring foreign workers.
He said while Australia was multicultural, it needed to focus on local jobs.
“We have and we always will be an immigration nation, but we must ensure that the foundation of that success is maintained and the foundation is that our migration system is seen to work in the national interest,” Mr Turnbull said at a Parliament House press conference today.
“That it is seen to deliver for Australians. It is seen to ensure that Australian jobs are filled by Australians wherever possible.
“We’re abolishing 457 visas, the visas which bring temporary foreign workers into our country.”
As at September 30, 2016 there were 95,757 workers in Australia on primary 457 visas

The program will be replaced by another visa program, with new restrictions.
“It is important businesses still get access to the skills they need to grow and invest, so the 457 visa will be replaced by a new temporary visa, specifically designed to recruit the best and brightest in the national interest,” Mr Turnbull said.
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Source: News.com.au

Overseas workers where a big part of my business and we would have struggled without them. Only because we lost all our Aussie trades to the mines and couldn't get staff in Aust. Once the overseas guys arrived we had good tradesman to train our apprentices once again.

I agree with giving jobs to our guys so lets hope the "skills shortage list" is well thought out for the replacement system.

Scrapping it and replacing it with another system ....... so not really scrapping anything, nothing to see here move on please ...

he is just trying to shout out ...

to ensure that Australian jobs are filled by Australians wherever possible.

and then

It is important businesses still get access to the skills they need to grow and invest, so the 457 visa will be replaced by a new temporary visa, specifically designed to recruit the best and brightest in the national interest

Nothing really and I don't really see the point. Its the skills shortage list that just needs fine tuning.

He was saying they will have English tests and min two years work experience, He said jobs will need to be advertised locally first. This is all an requirement on the old 457 anyway and it was the English test that most the workers struggled with.

^ especially by employer's. Don't really need hankie heads driving. When drivers started taking high paying jobs in the mines the likes of Linfox started bringing them in to keep costs down. Became an epidemic after that.... although they're not wanted in what i do.

And that was the issue. I is a good thing to have overseas workers but so many abused it.

Over 50% of my staff were on 457 visa's made up of Poms, Irish and Filipino. Everyone of them I paid the same as and non visa staff and a few even higher.

In my industry we would advertise locally for months and not get one applicant. Plus we had some jobs to fill that we just don't get that experience out of the Aussie guys so had to go to England and the middle east to get experienced trades.

^ Ozzy, in your case im glad it worked well for you and did it fair and by the book. Id say you would be in the minority of employers doing the right thing. But as allways some one will fuck it up for the honest people. pity, hope this decision by the gov doesnt affect you.

^ Ozzy, in your case im glad it worked well for you and did it fair and by the book. Id say you would be in the minority of employers doing the right thing. But as allways some one will fuck it up for the honest people. pity, hope this decision by the gov doesnt affect you.

I know a local manufacturer where the general manager has 6 of their Filipino workers staying at his investment property and he's charging every one of them 250 a week. Life's good when you're a prick.

Made some comments on this yesterday in the Australian Political Chat thread.

The 457 visa got a bad name because of perceived rorting but what we will get is a 457 visa by any other name.
Everyone seems to have a story about 457 worker rorts.

Scrapping the visa has been One Nation Policy for at least the last two years. Once again the Liberals are falling in with them as the world moves toward populist appeasement politics.
I would hazard a guess that for every time the system has been rorted, businesses got 10 skilled tradesmen they wouldn't otherwise have got.
Politicians seem to have no idea how many foreign workers were employed by business. Jacqui Lambie thought it was millions.

Some questions I would still like to ask are:

Past
Were 457 visa holders really displacing suitably qualified locals?
Present
Are there any hard and fast examples of foreign workers being employed over qualified locals at the same cost?
Future
Should business be forced to pay a premium, (Foreign worker exclusion tax) to employ locals?
What evidence will we see of local workers actually being employed solely because the 457 visa is no longer available?

I think we are seeing yet another example of this government "Playing with the edges" for political points and nothing beneficial
will ever result from these changes in terms of increased employment opportunities for local skilled workers.

The new visas will cost business more (No surprises there then). Why do criminal checks on people who have never been to this country? You wont find anything.
English skills are important, but why aren't we including english lessons in the visa instead of trying to exclude otherwise skilled tradesmen?

I know a local manufacturer where the general manager has 6 of their Filipino workers staying at his investment property and he's charging every one of them 250 a week. Life's good when you're a prick.

And I bet they are loving it, earning ten times what they could at home and sending the money back to their families.
Nothing like a "Win Win" situation.....

I know a local manufacturer where the general manager has 6 of their Filipino workers staying at his investment property and he's charging every one of them 250 a week. Life's good when you're a prick.

I guess. They probably even prefer being around each other. I could never live with one housemate though, much less 5! That's my idea of hell.

But this is normal with Asian workers its no differant to home. They live as cheap as they can so can send money home. When I first met my now wife she was living in a house with 7 others. The others where my ex employees and it was my supers house. But they didnt pay $250 each....55

Philippines largest export is people. They are very good at working overseas and eventually becoming permanent residents in that country but its expensive so they save what they can.

About 5 years ago I took a Fillipino worker out of a Mercedes dealership in Dubai sent him back to Manila for a year. I paid his wages and put him in english school just to pass the test. He had some skills I needed so a good investment IMO. He past the test and arrived in Aust. Two weeks after he arrived another business offerd him more money and I lost him. Worked out his BF was in that other business.

Protection to the sponsors would be handy that is a big area the 457 visa fell over. The poms are good at using up sponsors too.